BINGO PINBALLS

 

Techno Stuff
How They Work - Extra Balls

Extra Ball Lights

lamp circuit
surf club
extra ball lamps
If you're familiar with step-up units, the way the extra ball lights work should come as no surprise. The one difference is that once an extra ball lamp is lit, it stays lit (vs. things like the score lamps, where only the current odds values are illuminated). Actually getting an extra ball requires that the word "ball" is lit. The extra ball light strip on the backglass for most games consists of nine seperate panels, with three panels per extra ball. If the extra ball unit is stepping up once per coin/credit played, then it would require at least three plays to light "1st" - "extra" - "ball". It is possible, however, for a single play to light three or more panels at once. On many earlier games, it is possible to get all three extra balls (nine panels lit) awarded in a single play.

On the schematic above, we see that the "Extra Ball" panel on the backglass is lit when the extra ball play relay closes. On later games without an extra ball play relay, this lamp turns on when the extra ball trip relay #1 closes the first time the yellow button is pushed.

The extra ball lamps themselves are lit by the extra ball disc wipers A&B which are tied together (see diagram on previous page). Note how wiper A has six fingers, so it can light at most 6 lamps at a time. Since there are nine lamps total, wiper B covers the rest. Wire #30 is the common wire completing the circuit for the lamps, so a finger on wiper A or B must always be on a contact connected to wire #30.

The spotting disc is also in the circuit, and as usual, it is flashing the lamps during the spin cycle. Extra ball trip relay #2 is in the circuit to prevent the extra ball panels from flashing unless you are in extra ball mode, and the CU cam switch 4A disconnects the circuit through the spotting disc once the spin cycle is over. Without CU cam 4A, an extra ball lamp could falsely stay lit if the spotting disc stopped on a contact that was powering the extra ball lamps.

how they work | Previous | Next